1. Introduction
This study is the result of a five-week
analysis of the situation in West Darfur and how it affects children and
older people. The objective of the study is to gain an improved understanding
of the community, its coping strategies for supporting separated children
and older people, and what changes to these strategies that may have occurred
as a result of the on-going conflict. Finally, recommendations for programmatic
interventions are included.

HelpAge has worked in Sudan for over
20 years, but only began operating in West Darfur in July 2004. At present,
HAI distributes non-food items to older people in camps, including Sisi
and Krinding and advocates on behalf of older people. In Sisi, Krinding,
Kerenik and Gokar, Older People's Committees (OPCs) have been established
and OPCs are planned for Mornei and Riyadh. The OPCs are made up of representatives
of older members of the community, both men and women, who monitor the
condition of the more vulnerable older people, especially those who live
alone. HelpAge has also initiated a project promoting fuel-efficient stoves,
which can be easily made in the camps and 290 people have so far been trained
in Sisi. The fuel-efficient stove projects have a protection element as
well as ensuring that the use of firewood is maximised. There are additional
benefits in that the amount of smoke is reduced and the fire itself is
controlled, so that burning accidents, especially involving children, are
minimised.

UNICEF works with other UN agencies,
39 NGOs and local authorities in the Darfur region to provide humanitarian
assistance to the vulnerable population in the area. UNICEF's key programme
interventions include Water and Sanitation, Health and Nutrition, Education,
Child Protection and Relief and Shelter. For example, more than 263,000
children, between the ages of 6 and 13 years, have enrolled in schools
through the construction of over 1,200 temporary classrooms and the rehabilitation
of 68 permanent classrooms. In addition, 105,486 children in Darfur have
been provided with psychosocial support through the establishment of child
friendly spaces, which are safe places free from violence and conflict
and meant for promoting the psychosocial well being of children and re-establishing
a sense of normality in their lives. They offer an environment conducive
for children who have been the victims of serious children's rights violations.

2. Methodology

Three locations within West Darfur were
identified as focal points for the study: Mornei, Sisi and Gokar IDP camps,
with Krinding as an alternative to Gokar in the event of Gokar being inaccessible
for security reasons. (Table 1: IDP Populations -- WFP figures from 2004).
In the event, it was decided to go to Krinding camp on the outskirts of
Geneina, as UNSECOORD, the security personnel of the relief operations,
would not give clearance to drive to Gokar.

Table 1: IDP Populations

Location

Total Population

Children (under 15)

Older People (over
60)

Mornei

67,968

15,649

5,353

Sisi

4,104

952

603

Gokar

2,709

529

180

Krinding I

23,092

4,454

1,363

Krinding II

16,463

N/A

N/A

Totals

114,336

21,584

7,499

Source: WFP (Registration date March/April/August
2004)

Each location was visited and Focus Group
Discussions (FGD) and semi-structured interviews (SSI) conducted. Each
FGD comprised up to 20 people representing a cross-section of age, gender
and ethnicity and the interviews were held with 10-20 older people and
the children for whom they care. In practice, in certain locations, these
numbers were difficult to maintain, especially as the Humanitarian Affairs
Commission (HAC) and its representatives, had created a certain amount
of expectation amongst the displaced people of Mornei. FGDs were, with
the permission of the participants, tape recorded. The numbers were reduced
to about 10, at least for the FGDs, in Sisi and Krinding, though again,
in practice, once a gathering is noticed people will try and join it.

In addition, key stakeholders were consulted
and these included local authorities, UN agencies and international NGOs
and local committees, particularly Older Persons Committees, where these
have been established.

Two Focus Group Discussions were held
each morning and two interview sessions in the afternoon. The morning sessions
were largely successful, but for the afternoon sessions some difficulties
arose as early afternoon is set aside for market purposes and the mid-afternoon
period becomes very hot and uncomfortable. Even later in the afternoon
it was difficult to gather together the required interviewees, but finally,
a mutually agreeable time was set and sessions were held as soon as afternoon
prayers were over.

3. Constraints

Limiting factors in organising and conducting
the study included:

Security - the main constraints
to any operations in Darfur concern security. Travel between Geneina and
Mornei is somewhat restricted due to the necessity of travelling in convoys
of not less than three or four vehicles. Sisi lies along the same route
and therefore the same restrictions apply.

HAC - the capacity of the Humanitarian
Aid Commission (HAC), within the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to support
the international humanitarian community. HAC is often the first point
of contact between INGOs and the IDPs and is, at least in theory, a partner
in the international intervention. In Mornei, mainly due to the size of
the camp (75,000 IDPs), it was necessary to seek their cooperation and
assistance to organise the FGD and SSI groups. This assistance was channelled
via the Omda of Mornei and the host and IDP sheikhs, most of whom, it appears,
have been appointed by HAC and who, therefore, promote the agenda of HAC
rather than representing the interests of the IDPs.

Focus Group Discussions -- FGDs
were almost impossible to restrict to a manageable size in each location,
but particularly in Mornei, where they were often primed beforehand by
the sheikhs. Interviews in Mornei often became difficult to manage as the
perception of the community, encouraged by HAC or the HAC representatives,
was that vulnerable people in general were to be registered for distributions
or support. The FGD in Hai al-Salaam 'C', Mornei, ended early after the
participants complained that they were bored of talking and that the exercise
was meaningless. The same meeting included a HAC representative, who at
one point reminded the group to speak only on the issues about which he
had instructed them. The FGD in Hai al-Imtidad al-Sharg 'A', Mornei, was
disrupted by a HAC sheikh who tried to persuade the gathering that life
in a camp as an IDP was better than life in a village and that he, for
one, was going to stay in Mornei. Fortunately for the discussion, he decided
to leave the gathering.

Limited infrastructure - the camps
have few permanent buildings where discussions could be held, thus meetings
tended to be fairly public making it difficult to prevent the groups becoming
larger as time went on.

Reliance on translators - certainly,
in Mornei the problem was magnified due to the fact that the IDPs come
from a wide spectrum of tribes, speaking different local languages, and
Arabic is by no means understood by all, particularly women and children.
During one meeting in Mornei four different languages were represented,
in addition to Arabic: Masalit, Fur, Tama and Daju'. Translation is also
a skill, involving interpretation as much as a direct translation of words
from one language into another and this skill is integral to conducting
good research.

Local staff capacity - all INGOs
working in West Darfur have similar problems as most national staff, especially
those local to West Darfur, have little experience of working with INGOs
and have had limited training in information gathering skills and using
the tools required for effective research in displaced communities. Capacity
building has been shortchanged by the immediacy of the emergency and the
need for timely intervention.

Limited access to quantifiable data
- population figures, for example, are, a year on from the first interventions
by the international community, still little more than at best good estimates
and at worst purely "guesstimates". WFP have been updating their
registrations, which have improved their figures, but there remain wide
diversities in the numbers of displaced peoples or of any specific groups,
such as older carers, working children, rape victims or deaths.

4. Overview of the situation in West
Darfur

According to the latest Humanitarian
Profile available from the UN, there has been an increase in the IDP population
in the whole of Darfur of 39% (about 17,800 people) since January 2005,
bringing the total IDP population to 1.86 million, 38% (700,000) of whom
are in West Darfur. The UN claims that, due to better registration and
increased access, 88% of the total population is being accessed with relief
at the moment.

5. Security and Protection

Over the past twelve months, the security
situation in Darfur has not improved, despite condemnation by the international
community and the UN. The government of Sudan has done little to disarm
the militias and the IDP population still has very real fears that any
proposed return to their homes cannot be achieved without their security
being guaranteed. The police forces remain ineffective, and either collude
with or ignore militia attacks on IDPs. Indeed, many of those recruited
into the police in the last year come from the militias themselves, and
the impunity with which the militias seem to be able to act is a result
of this. The continuing presence, around and close to many of the camps,
of the Janjaweed militias, who are constantly mentioned by the residents
of the camps as being the cause of insecurity and the perpetrators of aggression,
assaults and rape, can only be seen as threatening and a means of intimidation.

The African Union monitoring teams have
too limited a mandate to be effective, and, except for reporting incidents
and investigating reported rapes, there is little that they can do. However,
although the AU teams have begun patrolling some firewood collection areas,
IDPs have little confidence in their ability to help the security situation
and even the physical presence of the AU makes little difference to their
lives.

The collection of firewood has been identified
as a major protection issue, which to some degree is being addressed by
AU patrols, but also by HAI and other agencies through the training of
trainers in the making of fuel-efficient stoves. The stoves are made from
locally available materials and are a simple means of maximising the use
of firewood and of reducing, at least a little, the frequency of having
to seek further supplies and thereby exposing oneself to risk.